The overall idea is to make it not worth the effort. Making your bike look shit will decrease the perceived value. Other nearby bikes will look comparatively m

The overall idea is to make it not worth the effort. Making your bike look shit will decrease the perceived value. Other nearby bikes will look comparatively more valuable, and are thus a more attractive target. Using overkill locking will make it too much effort to steal. When choosing between bikes of similar value, the one which is easiest to steal will be choosen. Make it hard to offload. Giving it a shitload of stickers or a weird paintjob will make it too recognizable. It will be too obviously stolen to sell, again making other bikes more attractive.